QUOTES FROM AN ARTICLE TODAY IN HAARETZ, a leading jewish newspaper in Israel. Ask yourself what sort of reason would you feel justified this sort of thing in, say, Northern Ireland even. In fact the IDF were confused, and at first could find no record of there being any reason at all for the demolition.

If this isn't a war crime, I don't know what is.

BEIT HANUN, Gaza - Ahmed Za'anin's house now looks
like some 1,200 other Palestinian homes: a pile of
rubble. On May 18, at about 7 P.M., IDF bulldozers
knocked down four houses, one partially, which
belonged to the extended Za'anin family, in Ezbat
Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip.......

......"Suddenly we saw Jews in the house," said Amana
Za'anin. An officer and soldiers entered through
a breach they opened in the wall of the house.
They aimed their weapons at the family, and
ordered them out. According to the family, they
were not allowed to take anything with them. Not
even the mother's head covering. The student
daughter cried she didn't want to leave without
her books and notebooks. Her parents said that
they had to drag her away from "under the
bulldozer.".....

.....during the demolition, a
goat shed was destroyed; some of the goats were
crushed under the heavy machinery. Storehouses
were demolished as well as some farm equipment,
including a tractor. A well-preserved 1960
Mercedes was destroyed, as were beehives that
were dragged and crushed, now scattered among the
rubble. More than 50 people lived in the four
houses, and now they are crowded in with
relatives and neighbors. They cannot cross the
street - not even the oldest among them - to
reach the city. The tanks prevent that passage....

...And 14-year-old Mohammed
Za'anin was killed. He and his family didn't know
that an IDF force had taken up a position in the
next-door house. At the end of the first day of
the IDF takeover, the Za'anin family went up to a
little bridge that connects two parts of their
compound, to see what was going on around them.
Mohammed, the son, was killed - shot in the head....

...In the last two weeks, IDF forces have uprooted
the orchards and groves of Beit Hanun. On the
first day of the operation, the IDF blew up and
demolished four houses inside Beit Hanun.